Recruiting Excellent People, Whats the Problem?

Recruiting Excellent People, Whats the Problem?

Recruiting the best staff can be an arduous task and retaining them can be even more difficult. What are the issues and what can be done to resolve it?

Why is recruiting good people is always a good thing?

• Improved Service means happier consumers/customers
• Happier consumers/customers mean's more business
• Improved productivity and profit
• Natural internal upskilling of employees
• Great team spirit
• Positive atmosphere
• Improved Employee retention and attracts talent

The list above is only the tip of the iceberg it really is important, but that's obvious, right?

What is the impact of recruiting the wrong people?

• Negatively impact resources
• Negatively impact productivity
• Reduced bottom line, profit
• Impacts your brand as employers
• Can create poor atmosphere and team spirit

Again this list could be much longer but you get the idea. Again its fairly obvious too.

What are the issues in Hospitality that effect retention of talent?

Based on Lobsterjobs.co.uk research, our hospitality jobs industry partners say that the biggest issue with recruiting and retaining excellent people (particularly chefs) is the well documented skills shortage. The result of this is:

• Reduced skill-set expecting similar wages (e.g. a commis chef being payed Chef de Partie rates) Its a demand issue.
• More hires needed to cover the workload as a result

These issues by symptom cause a knock-on effect that passes down the management chain and effects the staff motivation creating problems in the front of house and back of house.

What can happen in this situation?

• Workers can take advantage (taking time off when they want without notice)
• Walking out of jobs if they don't get what they want, knowing that they will get another one very quickly
• Negotiating inflated salaries etc

How is this effecting the Agency/Employer relationship?

• Agencies unable to keep up with demand
• Increase fees for permanent roles
• Abuse of Agencies to get people through the door and keep contacts for future use

What is the Answer?

In some ways this isn't a bad thing for the employees. It gives them some negotiating power and to retain the best staff it forces the employers to:

• Improve working conditions/environment
• Offer progression and career/skills improvement opportunities
• Improve work life balance (Particularly shift and weekend work (Unsociable hours)
• Engage with employees and communicate better with them
• Improve culture (Always a way to attract and retain employees
• Rewarding hard work with rewards and bonuses
• Team days out etc

We are extremely interesting in your thoughts and would like to hear any stories you have regarding this subject. Please send your comments to info@lobsterjobs.co.uk


For all the latest vacancies we have on Lobsterjobs.co.uk: Chef Jobs